Duma asks European body to protect Russian reporters in Ukraine

The Lower House has addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) asking to protect Russian journalists in Ukraine from attacks by nationalist radicals, but official Kiev is turning a blind eye to the request.

The address was initiated by MP Roman Khudyakov of the populist
nationalist LDPR party, who said in comments to his motion that
the recent incident with Russian reporter Yevgeniya Zmanovskaya
of the Lifenews media company was a very vivid confirmation of
the current surge in hatred and ethnic strife in Ukraine.

“The principles of democracy and freedom of speech do not
work in Ukraine. Kiev has resolutely taken the path of terror and
intimidation of all dissident. I am not surprised by the fact
that Ukrainian police have chosen not to protect Russian
reporters, but I am outraged by the silence of Europe,” the
lawmaker said in an interview with mass circulation daily,
Izvestia.

“The USA and the European Union are lecturing us on some
infringements of human rights in Russia, but what can we see in
reality? In Ukraine, that is longing to be a part of Europe, a
female journalist is beaten and humiliated,” he said.

The MP was referring to an incident on Wednesday in Kiev, when a group
of young radicals attempted to disrupt a concert by local pop
star, Ani Lorak, and attacked spectators and reporters on their
way to the show. The Russian LifeNews agency reported that its
female correspondent, Yevgeniya Zmanovskaya, was beaten and
teargased by unknown people as Ukrainian reporters cheered and
accused their Russian colleague of “spreading lies.”
When Russian journalists turned to police officers for help they
were told to “go back to Russia.”

Khudyakov added that the European lawmakers represented by the
PACE must investigate and denounce all violence against reporters
that have recently taken place in Ukraine. “Europe has
probably forgotten who defeated Nazism and what price the whole
world had to pay for this. Now the Ukrainian authorities are
living by the same principles. We see repressions against
journalists based on ethnic distinctions. Europe must make a
harsh statement on this issue,” Khudyakov noted.

In a separate comment, reporter Yevgeniya Zmanovskaya confirmed
that she had regularly faced insults and humiliation from her
Ukrainian colleagues. She also noted that after she and her crew
were briefly detained by Ukrainian police in mid-October,
Ukrainian Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko personally thanked
the officers on his Facebook page for “demonstrating
patriotism and refusal to speak Russian.”

Earlier, the Russian Union of Journalists also asked the European
organization to give their assessment to the events that unfolded
in Kiev on Wednesday.

Soon after the scandal, the Ukrainian internal security service,
the SBU, issued an official entry ban for 83 reporters from
Russian state-run and private media companies. 10 journalists
were expelled from the country and 73 were not allowed to enter
Ukrainian territory, Markiyan Lubkivsky, an aide to the SBU
director, wrote on his Facebook page.